Virus outbreaks on cruise ships mirror trend on shore

“We delayed the departure of the ship for 24 hours in order to make sure that we did everything the way it needed to be done and we didn’t rush any of the cleaning,” Martinez said.

Mercury passenger Monica Blilie, a retiree from Gautier, Mississippi, was pleased with Celebrity’s response during the trip.

“The crew did everything they could do, as far as we could see,” Blilie said. She didn’t get sick during the trip, but her husband, Jon, developed gastrointestinal illness the day after they returned.

“You could not touch anything, they served everything. You couldn’t even put salt and pepper on your own food. They did that,” Blilie said. The crew also made it clear that passengers should use hand sanitizer and wash their hands regularly.

The VSP requires cruise ships to have Outbreak Prevention and Response Plans, which the Mercury implemented with increased cleaning and disinfection across the ship as well as modifying food service procedures.

Outbreaks of illness on cruise ships aren’t unusual, and norovirus outbreaks don’t necessarily correlate with the sanitation scores the VSP gives cruise ships in regular unannounced inspections. Illness outbreaks caused by bacterial or parasitic pathogens can more clearly be traced to a failure in an onboard system, Ames said.

The Mercury scored a 94 out of 100 on its last inspection. Inspection scores of 85 or lower are considered unsatisfactory by the VSP.

Dr. Bradley Connor, former president of the International Society of Travel Medicine, said the Vessel Sanitation Program “has raised the standards of the industry tremendously,” but norovirus outbreaks often include factors beyond the control of inspectors and cruise lines.

“Sometimes you can have the cleanest ship with the best scores that unfortunately is hit by norovirus, and a lot of that has to do with who the passengers are,” Connor said.

Still, the scale of the recent Mercury outbreak is unusual. Few of the more than 30 gastrointestinal illness outbreaks recorded by the VSP since the beginning of 2008 affected more than 20 percent of passengers, and the vast majority affected less than 10 percent.

So what can passengers on upcoming cruises do to stay healthy?

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor in chief of cruising Web site Cruise Critic, washes and sanitizes her hands frequently and avoids touching highly trafficked surfaces such as banisters when possible.

“Take reasonable precautions, but try not to get paranoid about it,” Brown said.

“[Gastrointestinal illness] certainly happens on cruise ships and it’s certainly a disappointment when you’re on your vacation and you get it, but you can get it at home.”